New Hurst Justice Center has it all: police, jail, courts, crime lab

Work is now complete at the Hurst Justice Center, where police officers proudly showed off the building to the public during a grand opening ceremony last week.

The Police Department and Municipal Court moved in to the justice center over a year ago, but work was still underway to renovate the former police department building to add a new dispatch center, crime scene lab and a 40-bed jail with a larger sally port.

During the ceremony, Mayor Richard Ward asked for a moment of silence in honor of the five fallen police officers who were shot during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas on July 7. Many in the crowd wore blue ribbons in support of the police officers.

The four-story, 97,000-square-foot justice center at 825 Thousand Oaks Drive features a parking garage and plenty of office space.

“Remember that old building and how crowded it was?” said Police Chief Steve Moore.

“Because of you, we have this facility where we can get the job done and handle more prisoners,” he added, addressing residents and business owners in attendance.

In the past, the jail was shut down at times because of overcrowding, Moore said.

He also described how detectives often shared office space and how some employees worked in a separate building in south Hurst.

In 2012, voters approved a $16.95 million bond package to pay for the building, and $2 million in capital funding and the crime tax was also used for the justice center.

Moore said he expects that Hurst prisoners now being held at the Euless Jail will be transferred to the new facility in about two weeks.

The jail can house 40 prisoners, with room to expand, he said. It also features an area to handle DWI arrests, laundry facilities and upgraded locks and an intercom system.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 10:17 AM with the headline "New Hurst Justice Center has it all: police, jail, courts, crime lab."